1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital camera, and in particular, to a digital camera having a movable mirror, which enables a subject image to be observed through an electronic viewfinder.
2. Description of Related Art
A digital single-lens reflex camera generally has an electronic viewfinder and an optical viewfinder. A subject image formed by an image pickup optical system has its path switched to an optical viewfinder or an image pickup element with a movable mirror provided in an optical path.
In the optical viewfinder, no displacement occurs between a subject image in a recording image and a subject image displayed with the optical viewfinder, whereby an image pickup operation can be performed satisfactorily.
On the other hand, in the electronic viewfinder, a so-called live view mode can be realized, in which a real-time image generated by an image pickup element is displayed on a display portion. In the live view mode, it is not necessary to bring the eye into contact with a finder unlike the optical viewfinder, and an image can be captured easily at a high angle or a low angle.
The digital single-lens reflex camera with a live view mode is disclosed by, for example, JP 2001-272593 A.
However, in the conventional digital single-lens reflex camera, when an image is captured in a live view mode, it is difficult to display a real-time image on a display portion during an image pickup period and processing of image data.
Furthermore, there is a digital single-lens reflex camera with a so-called burst mode in which a plurality of image data are generated with a single image pickup operation. The burst mode can be used both during the use of an optical view finder and in a live view mode using an electronic view finder, and particularly in the live view mode, a period during which a real-time image cannot be displayed on a display portion as described above continues.
In the burst mode, a moving subject is captured in most cases. Therefore, the impossibility of visually recognizing an image of a subject during an image pickup period in the burst mode degrades the ease of use of the digital single-lens reflex camera.